Spine Services of St. Paul Radiology

Specialty Services

Spine Services

Image Guided Epidural Steroid Injections

• An epidural steroid injection may be used to help reduce the pain caused by a herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, or spinal stenosis (narrowing). An image guided approach has become standard of care because of the accuracy in targeting the injection.

Vertebroplasty

• This minimally invasive procedure stabilizes a spinal fracture. A biopsy needle is guided into the fractured vertebra under x-ray guidance through a small puncture in the patient’s skin, and specially formulated acrylic bone cement is injected into the fractured vertebra to stabilize the vertebral bone.

Kyphoplasty

• This procedure is designed to stop the pain caused by a spinal fracture, to stabilize the bone, and to restore lost vertebral body height due to a compression fracture. Using image-guided techniques, a catheter (long, thin tube) is guided to the correct position through a small incision made in the back. The catheter creates a path through the back into the fractured area for treatment.

Joint Injections

• Radiologists use image-guided techniques for precise and accurate needle placement for treatment and to alleviate pain.

Bone Biopsy

• A bone biopsy is a procedure in which a small sample of bone is taken from the body and looked at under a microscope for cancer, infection, or other bone disorders. A bone biopsy is often done on bone areas that show problems on an X-ray. A Computed tomography (CT scan) may be used to guide the biopsy needle.